Question reference: S6W-22997
- Asked by: Collette Stevenson, MSP for East Kilbride, Scottish National Party
- Date lodged: 17 November 2023
-
Current status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 4 December 2023
Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many people in the East Kilbride constituency it expects will receive support from the Winter Heating Payment in the current financial year.
Answer
The Scottish Fiscal Commission publish estimates and forecasts of the number of people receiving payments for Winter Heating Payment. The Scottish Fiscal Commission do not publish estimates and forecasts for the number of people receiving payments by area within Scotland. In their May 2023 publication it was forecast that a total of 403,000 people will receive payments in the financial year 2023-24.
Social Security Scotland publish statistics for the number of historic payments for Winter Heating Payment by Local Authority but not at constituency level. Statistics for 2023-24 are not yet available. In the South Lanarkshire Local Authority, 24,860 payments for Winter Heating Payment were made in the Winter of 2022-23.
Internal Scottish Government analysis using the Social Security Scotland statistics, in combination with published population data, suggests an estimate of 6000 payments were made in East Kilbride in the Winter of 2022-23.